Tag: tea

Oh my goodness, September has been a month for me! I have been so busy, planning to run a kitchen for a women’s retreat weekend. Plus the weekend itself, which was awesome. Bible Study has started again. This weekend I am going to Nashville to celebrate my dear friend Chelsey who is getting married in a few weeks. And next month I will be volunteering in a kitchen for a prison ministry. So there has been a lot going on, especially on the weekends. My mother is AMAZING, because she has been doing my markets for me a lot. Praise God for her, she has been tremendous.

I made these cookies weeks ago, I just had so much going on I couldn’t post them until today. Last time I posted I shared my love of tea and how my neighbor at the market sells tea. I got some Earl Grey tea from him (the smell alone was heavenly) and whipped up these shortbreads. Once I posted the picture of them, multiple people at the market asked if I had them. Needless to say, I think I am going to put together a tin of assorted tea shortbreads.

These cookies were SO good. The tea gave it such a complex taste. I folded them so I got some glaze in each bite. My 8-year-old nephew Trenton kept going back to eat more and more of them. That is a testament to their tastiness, when a young kid loves them.

I am a lot like my momma (who is awesome and whom I love dearly). Growing up I mimicked her often. I was totally a picky eater like her. And I loved tea. I still love tea and I thank my momma for this.

About 10 years I was doing A LOT (as in hours a day) of food research, when I stumbled about matcha. Powdered green tea, with a dense amount of nutrients and goodness. Of course I live in the Midwest in a lovely Indiana town (and I mean that in all sincerity, I have tried to leave and always end up back here. But the older I get, the more my appreciate grows) and I couldn’t find any. Shoot when I started my market 5 years ago, I did a lot of explaining on what gluten-free meant. Now I hardly have anyone ask me what gluten-free is. I also couldn’t find a lot of flours or sugars that I needed. Recently it has gotten better. Still have to order cassava flour. Finally found a place with arrowroot. And one place with cacao butter. And maple sugar, although I bought all that, so now I ordered more online again. Now 10 years later I can find matcha powder.

So for a decade I have been eager. Eager to bake and experiment with matcha powder. To drink it (have you had a latte made with matcha? Waiting on my favorite coffee shop Java Haute to catch on to the matcha thing). And to bake with! Earlier this year I posted a recipe for a matcha ricotta tart, which I will actually be revisiting this week. I made some strawberry pies and needed a green crust for some stems and thought matcha would be a great natural way to obtain the color I needed. I drank some matcha I had the other day, which is paired with orange. It is lovely, I have had one with lemon as well, but I use orange less so I was more intrigued with that flavor combo. What if I made a matcha tart with an orange curd bottom. And then an orange ricotta filling? It got me exceedingly excited. Last winter, for Java I had made an orange ricotta pie which I absolutely loved. It had very subtle flavors and was not that sweet. So be prepared next week for that recipe.

Since I had matcha on hand, I thought I would tweak a recipe I saw for matcha swirled sugar cookies. I was geeked to say the least that I got a swirl. And the swirl kept through baking. I think if I made these again, I would dip them in white chocolate. I have found with matcha, it is about having the perfect amount. Too much can get a little bitter and not so good. Actually, thinking just now as I type, I would add some lemon zest to the regular sugar cookie dough and dip it all in white chocolate. Black sesame could be an interesting combo with the matcha too. It is on my list of things to try and I have seen it numerous times paired with matcha. Again, I do not live in a food-forward city, so first I have to find it. Some day………